


"There’s Stranger Things than a Mansion...”

by WAluigipants



Category: Luigi's Mansion (Video Games), Stranger Things (TV 2016), Super Mario Bros. (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:33:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25958320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WAluigipants/pseuds/WAluigipants
Summary: Will stumbles into Luigi's Mansion.[INCOMPLETE]





	"There’s Stranger Things than a Mansion...”

The party was having a late-night gaming session at The Palace. It was the last day of school, and summer was out. Will and Mike stood at an arcade machine, shifting joysticks left and right and tapping buttons. Mike was Player One, the one clad in red, and Will? He was player two, clad in green.  
“Remember! Hit the shell-creeper turtles from below!” Dustin eyed from behind them, being a backseat driver. Just as Will was about to make a run for it and get that last score in, the manager of the arcade tapped Will on the shoulder.  
“Zombie boy? Your ride is here.” Outside of the arcade was his brother Jonathan, and their girlfriend, Nancy. Will rolled his eyes.  
“Thirty seconds, please?” Will rummaged his hands through his own pockets, looking for another quarter  
“No can do. You gotta head on home, buddy.” Will shook his head, with Mike smiling upon getting the high score... then waving Will goodbye as he left home. Will arrived home just as normal as ever. No Lonnie... No Bob to greet him... just Mom, who seemed a bit upset to learn that he didn’t arrive by eight. He came two hours late. Nonetheless, she’d been through a lot. There was no need to get angry about this; this was the son she went through hellscapes and demons to keep safe. For now? The only consequence was for Will not to be able to draw before bed tonight. He’d head straight to bed, and sleep... and that’s what he did.  
Zzz…  
Will woke up in a rather... dingy smelling bed, inside a dimly lit room. It wasn’t a room in his house, that’s for sure... nor was it the Upside Down.  
“Intruder!”  
“No, no... it looks like we have a fourth guest... first the old man, the one in red, the green chicken... and now this little bonehead...”  
“The King would appreciate having another portrait... let’s scare him out of his minds, shall we? Eeheeeheee!” The room suddenly went dark, and a small white ghost with sharp teeth and a long tongue floated out of nowhere, screeching.  
Will screamed at the top of his lungs, up unto the point where he almost passed out... he felt as if his soul were leaving him out of pure fear…  
Suddenly, a twist at the doorknob... and the chattering of teeth... a silhouette of a figure in green... and their flashlight shined brightly upon the ghost’s eyes, leaving it dazed. The man held his breath, and pulled out what seemed to be a tube... and sucked the ghost right up into some sort of portable vacuum…  
“M-Mario?” The figure stuttered, looking around the room with his flashlight. He walked forward... and his flashlight shone upon Will, who shuddered in the bed. Luckily it wasn’t wet. This man... looked familiar... green, like the plumber he played as player two in that one arcade game…  
“Oh... H-hello.”  
“Don’t hurt me!” Will flinched.  
“Oh no no no. Luigi nice. Luigi very nice, sorry kiddo.” The man walked over and turned on the lights, closing the door. “No ghosts in this room anymore, whew… Have you seen my brother? He looks-a like me. Red hat with an M, bushier mustache, brighter overalls...”  
Will was bewildered. Was this a dream? Ghosts didn’t exist… nor were video games really… real. He pinched himself... it hurt. Apparently not, it seemed... at least for now.  
“Ooh, I like your pajamas. Spaceships are super cool.” Luigi spoke. The man, a plumber in overalls, was named Luigi, Will recognized.  
“Thanks. My mom got them for me.”  
“Hey, do you have a name?”  
“I’m Will... Will Byers.”  
“I’m Luigi and err... I’m looking for my brother Mario, who went missing in this mansion.”  
“What’s with the vacuum? Is it some kind of _proton pack_?”  
“No. But it does bust ghosts. An old man saved my life when I went in here a couple hours ago, and gave me this not too long afterward. He calls this the... Poltergust 3000.”  
“So this is a mansion?”  
“Yeah. A haunted mansion. Hard to believe I won it, but I think that may have been a trick...”  
“Ghosts are a lot scarier up close… Mama mia.”  
“Tell me about it.”  
“Say, Will kiddo, is this your backpack? I found it on the floor of the hallway here. There’s a spare change of clothes in there if you want to change for something more... effective for ghost hunting and survival.”  
“That is my backpack... how’d it get here?”  
“I’d ask the same question. I didn’t hear the doors of the mansion open at all. How did you get inside the-a mansion anyhow?”  
“I don’t know. I just woke up here.”  
“Oh... okey dokey. There’s a bathroom in here if you need to change...”  
“What about ghosts?”  
“No ghosties there, lucky us. Gotta thank E. Gadd for building me a device with a good scanner...”  
Will brought his backpack inside the restroom and came out a moment later, all dressed for adventuring... and helping out with the ghost hunting and brother search.  
“Luigi, right? You wouldn’t happen to be a plumber, would you?”  
“Yeah. Me and my bro are great plumbers... so great in fact, they even made a video game about it. Shame they used his name though. Mario Bros... and they went on to do the same even when we went on to rescue a princess... but that’s another story.”  
“Yeah. We should focus on what we need to do.”  
“Don’t you want to pass the time by talking? I get scared easily and talking to a friend does help me build up some courage.”  
“You think I’m a friend? We’ve only just met, Luigi.”  
“Luigi thinks you’re cool, like Mario.”  
“But we’ve only just met.”  
“In a haunted mansion, you take the friends that you can take. Now, what’s your story?”  
As Will and Luigi walked through the halls of the mansion, Will recounted the events of the Mind Flayer incident and his time in the Upside Down, with Luigi quickly empathizing.  
“I can vouch for being in a place that scares you outta your mind, mama mia...”  
“That Demogorgon...”  
“As for the weird shadow monster possession... I’ve got a sinking feeling that something like that will happen to me sometime in the future. Not here, but I’ve got a feeling I might hurt my brother under the control of someone else… a mind different from my own, like being brainwashed...”  
“Do you think it’ll be like... mine? Like, scary and traumatizing?”  
“I doubt it... No one could go through as crazy stuff as you’ve been through, kiddo. You’re cool. You put up with it like a real brave hero.”  
Will smiled... and his expression changed to one of seriousness when he heard familiar footsteps.  
“If it isn’t the green chicken... and the stowaway.” A deep, raspy, eerie voice spoke from the darkness. “I lift my hands to get a pet from another dimension in another universe, and I accidentally pluck a kid from his beauty sleep...”  
“Who are you?” Will looked around, his teeth chattering slightly.  
“The King of the Boos... King Boo!” A large white ghost with fangs, a long tongue, and eerie purple eyes and a jeweled crown peered down upon the two, laughing maniacally.  
“I remember now! You kidnapped my bro… and trapped him in a painting!” Luigi suddenly spoke, exasperated.  
“Give him back! He deserves his family as much as anyone does!”  
“Isn’t that sweet, kid. But take a look at what I got here.” King Boo yanked a Demogorgon forward, being bound by a ghostly chain. Will stiffened up.  
“The... the monster.”  
“It’ll do one better than those flimsy portrait ghosts, that’s for sure. Alley-oop!” King Boo released the chain and floated off to parts of the mansion unknown. The chain vanished... and the Demogorgon was free to move. Luigi began to panic, clicking his flashlight on and off.  
“Luigi! We need to run! Now!” Will held back tears of fear and snatched Luigi’s gloved hand, taking off in a run.  
“What do we do against that thing, Will?”  
“Got any fire?”  
“There’s the Fire medallion... But it only activates if I suck in a flame into the vacuum. The nearest candelabra is on the other side of the hall, which is... a long run. I don’t think we’re gonna make it, mama mia.”  
“Look alive, Luigi! If you don’t think we stand a ghost of a chance, we’ll become ghosts ourselves! We gotta move and get that flame!”  
“Wawawawawaaaah.” Luigi panicked once more, spinning. The Demogorgon was confused by the plumber’s antics, but not for long.  
Will held his breath and pulled out a rock from his backpack... and tossed to the other side of the hall as far as he could to distract it.  
“Luigi, we need to run NOW. We player twos need to stick together. Get the fire, and we can get your brother back. You can get me back home.” Will spoke as the Demogorgon was distracted... and a Boo snatched the candelabra, just nearby, laughing maniacally.  
“Looking for this, chumps?” It began to phase through the wall into another room... before Luigi shone the flashlight and began to suck up the ghost. Another ghost rose out of the candelabra, and Luigi sucked it up almost immediately with the vacuum. The Demogorgon was right nearby. Luigi held his breath, shuddering with fear… and fired a large fireball towards the Demogorgon. Will jumped out of the way and ran behind Luigi, eyeing the monster carefully.  
“That ought to have got it…” Will bit his lip. Just then, the Demogorgon got back onto its feet and screeched, opening its multi-faced mouth.  
“Looks like it only made it angrier.” Luigi took a step back.  
“Give it another shot, Luigi!” Will added. Luigi readied the nozzle, and fired a powerful fireball towards the Demogorgon just as it attempted to open its mouth again. It seemed to have struck its weak point, as it screeched in pain. It was dazed by the attack… Luigi had another chance to strike.  
“It’s not a ghost! I can’t suck ‘em up! What do I do now? You’re the one with experience here, kiddo!”  
Will got up and snatched the candelabra, shuddering with fear. He didn’t like fighting, but this is what he had to do. He clenched his open fist, and stuck the Demogorgon hard with the candelabra. It was forced out of its daze and screeched once more, opening its mouth… to be faced with another fireball.  
“It’s… a lot more predictable than usual,” Will took notice.  
“I’m surprised it hasn’t fled yet,” Luigi spoke with some confidence.  
“Wait a second. It’s doing something,” Will took a step back as the Demogorgon screeched, releasing some sort of electric red energy… and the environment shifted to an environment that Will found all too familiar. Everything suddenly mirrored, and floating particles of something white appeared in the air, and dark roots resembling tentacles covered the carpet of the halls. The walls grew to be less sturdy as well...  
“The Upside Down,” Will spoke with fear in his voice. “It changed the environment.”  
“King Boo must have enhanced it somehow…” Luigi spoke.  
“I think it wants to be in its home environment so it can try to take us down better. It doesn’t seem to like the enclosed space of the halls.”  
“How did you get out of the Upside Down again?”  
“My mom and Police chief Hopper got me out of there. But if there’s a rift out somewhere, we can use it to get back…”  
“Where is the Demogorgon anyway? It just up and vanished.” Luigi spoke, turning on the flashlight. Will tensed up. It was just like that time… but he shook his head. At least someone was with him.  
“We gotta search for an exit… and if the Demogorgon comes back, we run for it.”  
“But I still have the Fire element in the Poltergust.”  
“Then we use it against the Demogorgon again. It seems to be a bit tired after all of those fireballs. A couple more should finish it off, I bet. C-c’mon, Luigi! We gotta find a way out. We can’t let the rift close on us though. We gotta make finding it a priority.”  
“You’re acting like a real leader, you know?”  
“Thanks.” Will blushed. “Anyway, I… I got a feeling there might be a rift back to the mansion we were in before this way.” Will ran off to the left, with Luigi following. The Demogrogon’s screech could be heard in the distance, as well as its footsteps on the wooden floorboards and torn-up carpet. “It’s gotta be around here somewhere…”  
There were no cracks in any spot to be seen, nor was there any type of extradimensional energy being emanated from anywhere… but Luigi noted a fallen dresser on the floor.  
“What’s this doing here?” Luigi spoke, eyeing the dresser with keen interest… and perked up when he noticed the mirror. “Aha! I got it!” Luigi tapped Will on the shoulder and pulled out a small handheld device.  
“What… what is that?”  
“Another one of E. Gadd’s inventions… The GameBoy Horror. It’s a modified version of a GameBoy Color, it looks like… with a map of the mansion and everything.”  
“And… how can it get us out of here?”  
“Just you wait and see.” Luigi grabbed Will’s hand and investigated the mirror with the GameBoy Horror’s camera… and the two began to warp by some mystic force… Out of the Upside Down… and back into the foyer of the Mansion.  
“That felt a little anticlimactic. Shouldn’t the Demogorgon still be after us? We got out of there a bit too easily.”  
“I’m not armed to face extradimensional beings, kiddo. I’m gonna need some help from E. Gadd.” Luigi shook his head.

A babyish old man sat at a monitor, watching Luigi’s current progress in the mansion. Apparently, there was a new room in the mansion… or was it a floor? Whatever it was, it showed itself to be rather bizarre. There didn’t seem to be any ways of entering it… but it had its own doors… and it looked like the mansion itself, just in ruins with various vines strewn about and messed-up wallpaper. The old man shook his head.  
“Another dimension? Preposterous! I’ve studied this place for a week now, and I swear… another dimension is there too?” The old man turned around with a start, hearing footsteps on the rungs above him. There was Luigi… and a guest. A young boy wearing some rather fashionable attire… and a nice-looking bowl cut. The boy didn’t look to be ghostly whatsoever… nor did he hold any resemblance to Luigi. Who was this boy, the professor wondered?  
“Are you Professor E. Gadd?”  
“Why, yes I am! Luigi? Would you mind introducing me to this young fellow?”  
“His name is Will… and he seems to have come from another dimension and another universe through the means of King Boo and his powers.”  
“Will? Now that’s a nice name if I heard one!” Gadd laughed and offered his hand to Will for a handshake, who agreed and did so politely.  
“Thank you, professor.”  
“Now, you said this boy comes from another dimension. I find that a bit hard to believe, but I think there are stranger things than that. I mean, the two of us are exploring a haunted mansion that just popped up not too long ago! Now, Will... does this other dimension happen to be infested with vines? A new floor that popped up on the mansion feed on this very monitor here…”  
“It does, actually… and there are monsters, too.”  
“Monsters?” E. Gadd thought hard… and checked the bestiary on what ghosts were currently in the mansion. There were Portrait Ghosts, Gold Ghosts, Purple Punchers, Blue Twirlers, Speedy Spirits, Mice, Bats… Boos… things of all kinds, but… a new entry seemed to have been added. E. Gadd clicked the icon… and a full 3D rendering of the Demogorgon was brought upon the screen. “My, that is a monster… and it seems King Boo has enhanced its abilities. It seems to be capable of opening rifts in the mansion to take its prey to the other dimension… and much more easily with King Boo’s power boost. It’s also gained a stronger resistance to fire...”  
“No wonder a fireball couldn’t kill it.”  
“A vacuum wouldn’t work on it either, mama mia… It’s no ghost.” Luigi took off the Poltergust 3000, and set it on the ground, crossing his arms. “We can’t get anywhere with it roaming the mansion.”  
“Hmm…”  
“I’ve got an idea. Professor? Could you scan me real quick with a device? The other dimension… The Upside Down, as my friends call it… has… left something in me. There might be something in there that you could work with so we can fight the monster… Demogorgon and get me back home.”  
“That’s outta-the-blue, my boy, but I believe we can get something arranged.” E. Gadd fired up the monitor, which immediately began to take a scan of Will’s body. There seemed to be some slight residue from the Upside Down, marked as an unknown substance.  
“Luigi, put your Poltergust back on. I thought of a device that Will could use… that could work in tandem with your flashlight and vacuum. You know how my Portrificationizer can turn ghosts into paintings, and vice versa, correct?”  
Luigi nodded.  
“Well… what if I were to make a slight modification to the formula… that lets Will turn the Demogorgon… into a ghost?” E. Gadd grabbed a broken flashlight and quickly began making modifications using spare parts strewn throughout the lab.  
Will’s face lit up. “You mean…. I can actually help this time around?”  
“You were helping, Will! You were just being resourceful when you were left to your own devices!” Luigi remarked, patting Will on the back. “You got this. With that… whatever he’s making… you’ll be an even bigger help!”  
“I call it… the Jumble Pak! A modified Rumble Pak cartridge that jumbles up the molecular structure of the target to be similar to that of a ghost! Just zap the target, and it’ll be ghostly! It’s that simple to use. All we need to do is insert it into a Game Boy Horror… which I happen to have a spare of, right here.” E. Gadd took a Game Boy Horror and inserted the cartridge, handing it to Will. “It even adapts to its user!”  
Will hit the power switch… and it booted up with the traditional Game Boy Color interface. It then began to play a very short chiptune version the Stranger Things theme. Will smiled, appreciating the design and graphics that were on its screen… There also appeared to be an options menu…  
“It can access a beta version of the Strobulb, a feature I plan on adding to future models of the Poltergust. This drains the screen brightness for a moment if it’s released as fully charged. You have to take a moment for it to restore its settings. It can also use the elemental medallions by getting close to the respective element. It adds a bunch of functions to make it the ideal support experience. This ‘support’ is crucial to helping Luigi rescue his brother… and holds its own, more important role in getting you back home.” E. Gadd explained. “Now. You two. Are you ready to head back to the mansion?”  
“We’re ready.” Will took a deep breath, looking to Luigi.  
“Okey-dokey… Let’s-a-go.” Luigi nodded.

Luigi and Will wandered the halls of the mansion, armed with their devices and catching the occasional Purple Puncher or Blue Twirler. Just as they were about to catch one more ghost, one of the ghosts suddenly shrieked and vanished into thin air. A screech could be heard in the distance; a shriek that Will Byers found all too familiar. It was the Demogorgon. It had finally caught up to them after losing track of the pair… and a moment afterward, another scream from a raspy voice.  
“Toad!” Luigi’s head perked up, and he ran off in the direction of the Demogorgon’s screech. Instead of seeing his familiar fungal friend, Toad, Luigi saw an empty area in the foyer of the mansion. The chandelier lights were flickering madly. The Demogorgon was close… and taking whatever prey it could.  
“Don’t worry, Toad! We’re here to help!” Luigi cried out.  
“Who’s Toad?” Will asked.  
“A friend of mine sent here to look for Mario. They’ll go at any length to help us out and helped me keep track of the progress I’ve made in this mansion.”  
“Then we ought to help!”  
“Don’t worry! I can get outta here! If I was able to get away from that Boo, I can get away from this monster!” Toad attempted to reach out from the wall… before being pulled back and shrieking once more. There was the Demogorgon. Just before the wall “fell apart,” Luigi fired up the Poltergust 3000 and began sucking away at the wall, creating a temporary gateway to the Upside Down. Will ran in with the Jumble Pak, with Luigi following moments later. As the two traveled through the alternate mansion, they heard deep, raspy laughter from the other world… and the rift began to close.  
“Gweh heh heh heh! Thanks for buying some time to let your old pal King Boo get a couple more monster pets! Gotta say, they’re a lot easier to manage than those Portrait Ghosts… these folks don’t complain about having unfinished business with their lives. What do they want instead? YOU TWO.” King Boo descended from above with a large stone crate with a Boo-marked seal. “As soon as I open this nifty thing, twelve of those monsters will swarm the mansion that they’ve so cheerfully redesigned. As much as I like classic antique furniture… I can’t resist these eerie vines and spooky pores floating around us! Now… back to the moment you’ve all been waiting for… Boos? It’s time for you to remove the seal!”  
“What happened to Toad?” Luigi readied the Poltergust.  
“Your little fungal friend? Why, I’m tormenting him right now in this very box! These new monsters… ‘demogorgons’, you and your friends call them…”  
“You know about my friends?” Will gritted his teeth. “Tell me… did you do something to them too?”  
“Why, as soon as I trap you in a painting, I’ll torment them through nightmares; they’ll be unable to reach into their friend’s hand; trapped in another world, in another universe, far out of their reach. Have to say, the one with those… powers will prove to be troublesome to torment. I’m surprised you even have friends.”  
“Shut up! Why are you doing all of this?”  
“Why… all of the trouble Luigi’s brother Mario has caused to the Boos… and to test the powers of my new crown. In other words… vengeance… and fun!”  
“You think this is-a fun?” Luigi shook his head angrily and shone his flashlight in the ghostly monarch’s face. “I’ve been scared out of my mind, and mama mia, you go so far as to hurt even more people!”  
“I’d say the chit chat has gone on far enough! Boos! You needn’t be courteous. Open the box! Free their fungal friend and the thirteen beasts!” King Boo laughed as the box landed onto the ground and began to rock around crazily. The box suddenly stopped moving… and Toad was tossed out, miraculously unharmed. The demogorgons scrambled out of the box and into various rooms of the mansion via portals created by King Boo… who laughed once more and vanished. “They’ll stalk you just like a cat does a mouse! Unlike a mouse… There’s no holes for you to hide in; no holes back to the Mansion you know and love.”


End file.
